I think Obama needs to learn if there isn’t money, it can’t be spent. It’s not a difficult concept. I’d love a brand new car, but I don’t have the money for one right now so I’m not going into debt to get one.

I *could* live in a much larger house, but my husband and I decided that we need to live within our means and not stretch ourselves too much — just in case. And guess what? The just in case did happen. He lost his job as an architect for two years.

Yes, we were affected by the economic downturn. I’m sure most of you reading this have either been personally affected or know someone who has been affected by the economic downturn.

But we didn’t create a deficit during this time.

The United States is supposed to be the greatest and most powerful nation in the world. But we are trillions of dollars in debt. We are showing our poor decisions.

The extraneous spending MUST stop. What we ARE spending money on needs to be what’s important to move our nation forward: infrastructure.

Following the state of the State of the Union address, Ruane released a written press statement noting that the association appreciates Obama highlighting “the link between a strong, properly-functioning transportation infrastructure network and economic competitiveness.”

But now it’s time to “start developing real solutions to address America’s infrastructure deficit.”

Ruane noted: “An overwhelming majority of Congress voted last year to support final passage of the highway and transit bill, MAP-21. The law’s program consolidation, meaningful policy reforms and accountability provisions provide the foundation for building a much broader infrastructure investment package. MAP-21, however, only provided enough financial resources to maintain highway and transit investment at current levels for two years; a scenario that does nothing to reduce the increasing economic costs and personal toll from worsening traffic congestion.

“Generating significant new revenues to complement to MAP-21’s reforms would spur economic growth and job creation, and improve the efficiency of the nation’s transportation network. We stand ready to work with the President and members of Congress from both parties to achieve these goals.”

Let’s do it. Let’s come up with a solution. Let’s stop spending extraneously and increasing our debt, and let’s come up with a solution to REDUCE the infrastructure debt and figure out how to fund it.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and all 44 Senate Republican introduced a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution to bring what they think is a “much-needed fiscal discipline back to Washington.”

This amendment follows comments in President Barack Obama’s (D) Feb. 12 State of the Union address that supported what is being viewed as deficit spending on stimulus-style projects.